It's Our World (Part 1 of 3)

Please note, the author intends to publish this article in the near future. All discussion, comments, and criticism will be carefully considered before the writing goes into print. Ideally, the goal is to reach out to the larger community of students and spark insightful, intellectual debate.                                                                                                                                                                                                       -kuhlektiv 

Students:

Lend me your attention, your easily divided and hard won attention, for I have a plea. I have a bone to pick with the institutions that have shaped the world in which we are about to emerge. For 22 years I have been taught that my teachers know best, that mom and dad's ways of life were to be emulated, and that with age come wisdom. In the world of our parents and teachers, we are nothing of value without this hard won wisdom; 

"Children should be seen and not heard."

But here's the thing:
when I look at the deteriorating state of this earth I can't help but wonder if they really know what they're doing. Their fundamental values were formed around the things understood most in their era: industrialization and progress at whatever cost. Decades later, you and I have grown up with the photographic image of our perfect blue and white marble floating in the vast, black expanse of space. While we ate our Froot Loops, Bill Nye made science a part of Saturday morning cartoons alongside the Wild Thornberrys and the solar-powered super hero, Captain Planet. The concept of our tenuous existence relying upon a virtually invisible stratosphere which protects us from an enormous nuclear reactor is not foreign to us, we learned about this dichotomy before we were old enough to sit at the back of the bus.

The point is, we've always had an awareness of our environment and that awareness has always played a subtle but important role in our lives.

This is what our parents lack: an innate understanding of the value all ecological systems have and how our carefully crafted lives depend on these systems. Their understanding of value is based upon the antiquated American dream of finding a cheap education to get a life-long career, pay the mortgage, buy a new car every four years, and fill their homes 

with finery. This mindless dream has clouded their vision, shortened it, and now we have to clean up their mess.

They are not going to clean it up, they can't, and what's more it's not their fault that they can't; it is simply the condition of their up-bringing. They were shocked to see the global population reach 7 billion but it's going to reach 9 billion by the time we're 60 and by then they will be long gone.

For roughly 150 years now industrial societies have been profiting from free and dwindling resources at the expense of the earth's ability to function and sustain life. It is as though a group of teenagers have stumbled upon buried treasure and in celebration of that good luck they have decided to spend this undue fortune on an enormous rager. Inevitably, the party has had its occasional fist fights and angry neighbors threatening to call the cops if the party doesn't quiet down or cease altogether, yet, drunk and high off of their good fortune, they have partied on and paid no heed to any warnings that might kill the vibe. Inevitably though, this party will come to a conclusion; not because anyone will give in to the voices of moderation but because, like always, the booze and drugs will run out and the harsh light of morning will come.

"We are about to enter a new era in which, each year, less net energy will be available to humankind, regardless of our efforts or choices," the question is not whether but HOW to reduce energy usage and make a transition to renewable alternatives. It is up to us to make life on this earth forty years from now viable and it is certainly not too early to start working.[1]

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[1] Heinberg, Richard. "Introduction." In The party's over: oil, war and the fate of industrial societies. Gabriola, BC: New Society Publishers, 2003. 6.